City gets INDOT $$

Efforts to secure funding for the Lafayette Street and north side pedestrian trail projects have paid off as the City of Portland was awarded about $850,000 in grant funds for the improvements.
The Indiana Department of Transportation announced Friday $5,733,000 in grant funds awarded to six municipalities in the Greenfield District.
“We’re very excited and pleased with our partners from INDOT,” Portland Mayor Bruce Hosier said Friday evening.
Portland received $572,570 to go toward the Lafayette Street extension project and $270,419 for the Northside Pedestrian and Bicycle Greenway project. The funds are being committed for projects beginning in federal fiscal year 2014 and will require a 20 percent match from the city.
“The Lafayette street extension project, we already have FA-3 funding for that,” Hosier said. “This is additional funding to help facilitate and complete the Lafayette street project. It allows us to lessen the burden financially locally. We’re certainly excited about that.”
The trail project will look to add walking and bicycle paths connecting Milton Miller Park to Haynes Park via Creagor Avenue. Hosier said those paths are “very much needed” because currently pedestrians walking in that area have to travel on the roadway.
Hosier said the plans for the pedestrian path were included in the city’s Stellar Communities grant request, in which the city was named a finalist but did not win the multi-million dollar award.
INDOT also awarded Winchester $460,000 in Transportation Enhancement funds for the Winchester Gateway. Other grants announced Friday for the Greenfield District — all or part of 17 counties in the east-central portion of the state — for a variety of projects included $1.4 million to New Castle, $1.32 million to Richmond, $1.2 million to Shelbyville and $246,000 to Frankton.[[In-content Ad]]